Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with colorectal cancer detection.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20110183859, filed by Harris; et al., entitled, Inflammatory Genes and Microrna-21 as Biomarkers for Colon Cancer Prognosis, discloses methods for detecting a more aggressive form of a colon adenocarcinoma in a subject, thereby predicting the prognosis of the subject. The methods taught include determining an inflammatory gene expression signature in the colon adenocarcinoma and/or the adjacent non-cancerous tissue. In some embodiments, the inflammatory genes include, but are not limited to, PRG1, ANXA1, IL-17a, IL-23a FOXP3, HLA-DRA, IL-10, CD68 and IL-12a. In some embodiments, the method further includes detecting expression of microRNA-21 (miR-21) in the colon adenocarcinoma. Altered expression of one or more of the inflammatory genes or miR-21 indicates the prognosis of the subject. Also provided were arrays consisting essentially of probes specific for PRG1, ANXA1, IL-17a, IL-23a, FOXP3, HLA-DRA, IL-10, CD68, IL-12a and miR-21.
International Patent Publication No. WO 2011128900A2, filed by Aviram, et al., entitled, Plasma Based Micro-RNA Biomarkers and Methods for Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer, discloses compositions, methods and kits for diagnosing cancer, specifically the diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). More specifically, the invention provides simple assays, with high sensitivity and specificity for CRC, wherein a panel of microRNA (miRNA) are used as biomarkers. A method is taught for diagnosing metastasis of CRC in a subject is taught in which the expression level of miRs selected from the group consisting of miR566, miR96, miR183, miR194, miR200a, miR200b, miR200c, miR203 and miR429, or combinations thereof, in a biological sample obtained from the subject, wherein a significant elevation in the expression levels of the miRNAs in the biological sample compared to control values indicates that said subject is afflicted with metastasis of CRC. Other biomarkers included hsa-miR-16-2*, hsa-miR-25, hsa-miR-7, hsa-miR-93, hsa-miR-345, hsa-miR-409-3p, hsa-miR-671-3p and hsa-miR-331-3p.
Slaby, et al., Oncology 2007; 72: 397-402, “Altered Expression of miR-21, miR-31, miR-143 and miR-145 is Related to Clinicopathologic Features of Colorectal Cancer,” analyzes the expression levels of miR-21, miR-31, miR-143 and miR-145 in 29 primary colorectal carcinomas and 6 non-tumor adjacent tissue specimens were examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction.
Huang, et al., Journal of Digestive Diseases, Volume 10, Issue 3, pages 188-194, August 2009, “MicroRNA expression profile in non-cancerous colonic tissue associated with lymph node metastasis of colon cancer”, analyzes MicroRNAs isolated from six frozen non-cancerous surrounding colonic tissues derived from stage II-III colon cancer patients with (n=3) and without (n=3) lymph node metastasis. They compared microRNA expression profiles for six non-cancerous colonic tissues from two colon cancer patient groups; those with confirmed lymph node metastasis, termed the lymph node positive group, and those without detectable lymph node metastasis, termed the lymph node negative group. MicroRNA expression was analyzed with Agilent microarrays containing 723 human microRNA probes and they validated the expression level of differentially expressed microRNA using quantitative real-time PCR analysis, such as, hsa-miR-129*, hsa-miR-137, miR-15b, miR-181b, miR-19 and miR-200c.